The Malones Sam and Diane Money Matters
by vodkarocks
Summary: This is a three chapter story that is a continuation of the saga of Sam and Diane's marriage. It takes place in 1993 about six weeks after their wedding. The original story called The Malones Sam and Diane I posted in early February 2014. I've added several other stories about the Malones as well. In this story Diane finds out some interesting things about Sam.
1. Chapter 1

**Cheers: The Malones Sam and Diane **

**Money Matters**

**Early September 1993**

** "Sam, I have another scheduled doctor's appointment this week, on Friday. It's not necessary that you go along unless you want to go."**

"**Do you want me to go?"**

"**Well, the nurse did say that the results of the genetic testing are in, that the results look great but she wanted to know if we wanted to be told the sex of our babies. I'm not sure about this, it's all so new to me. Wouldn't it be easier to plan if we did know though?"**

"**I'd like to know Diane but if you don't want to know, the Doctor and I won't tell you," Sam said as he laughed at his own joke.**

"**Smartass," Diane laughed, "Let's both go."**

** Sam and Diane's schedules were not as carefree as they had been the month before, just after their wedding. Diane had been hired by a small private college in Boston to teach on a part time basis. She had a syllabus and lesson plans to do along with the current script she was rewriting for one of her colleagues in California, something she had promised him she'd do before she left L.A. They had dinner out several times a week simply because, until they had established a routine, it was easier.**

**Finishing their always superb Italian meal at Pomodoro in the North End, Sam and Diane walked over to a small bakery for a cannoli and coffee. It was a gorgeous September night in Boston, warm and clear. They held hands as they walked not talking to one another but overwhelmingly content to be together.**

** "Diane, I think it's time to buy a house. My apartment will be too small when the babies come. If we do start looking, I'd like to look at a neighborhood that is in between Cheers and your college so that neither one of us has a bad drive home."**

"**I agree, the apartment is too small. I do have some money saved from the screenplay I wrote. We could use that money for a down payment."**

"**Really, is it a lot?"**

"**I think I have about sixty thousand left. I splurged a little on clothes, I had to buy out my lease in California, and I bought a car when I got here. Money goes fast doesn't it?"**

**As they were eating their desserts and having coffee Sam said to Diane, **

"**You know something sweetheart, it just occurred to me that you know very little about my financial life and I think you should know more about it. It's important."**

"**Oh Sam, you know I don't care about money and such things. People place too much emphasis on money and not enough on the things they love doing."**

"**Diane, I've never had the luxury of not worrying about money and besides, what about people who like making money? It is extremely important that you know what we have in case something ever happens to me."**

"**Sam, don't scare me like that. I just got you back and the thought of ever losing you is not something I want to think about."**

"**Diane, you are the mother of my soon to be born children. You would be solely in charge of their futures if I wasn't here. Look, we're older parents and I just want to insure that our kids have the things they need in life. For instance, do you know that I have a safety deposit box?"**

"**No Sam."**

"**Another for instance, you know that I own Cheers but did you know I also own the apartment building I live in? Do you know what I owe on each of them? I think it's time you attended one of Sammy's School of Practicality Seminars," Sam said as he smiled at her.**

"**Really? You do? Okay Sam, maybe you're right and we should talk."**

"**Great, I'll have Norm pull all the paperwork together this week. Let's go to the cabin for the weekend and we'll go over all of it. Before we leave for the cabin on Friday I want to stop at the bank with you and empty out the safety deposit box. There are some things of yours in it, from way back when."**

"**You're a mystery man Sam Malone and I love it."**

**On the way to the Friday morning Doctor's visit Diane pulled out a present she had gotten for Sam. In the bag were two infant sized Boston Red Sox onesies that she had seen at a store. She was certain he'd love them. Sam had a present for Diane too. He pulled out of a bag two pale pink onesies with the imprints of "I Love My Daddy" on them. They both laughed at their idiocy. No matter what the sexes of their twins were, they obviously they were covered.**

**After going over the good news about genetic testing, Dr. Young asked Sam and Diane if they were certain about wanting to know the sexes of their twins. They assured her they were certain.**

"**Sam and Diane, you are among the luckiest. You are having a baby boy and a baby girl."**

**Emotions overwhelmed them to the point of not being able to speak. Sam and Diane gave each other one of the strongest hugs of their lives and held each other. Sam lifted Diane's chin to kiss her.**

"**Thank You" was all he could say through his tears and she smiled at him through her tears of joy. **

**The doctor smiled at them and left the room saying to them, "Those are two lucky little babies you have there."**

**Sam and Diane left the office walking hand in hand toward the car. Once in the car they embraced and kissed again not wanting to let go of each other. They looked like two teenagers making out in the back of a Chevy instead of a forty something aged couple making out in the front seat of a corvette, expecting twins, and ecstatic.**

**On the way to the cabin they stopped at the bank to unload Sam's safety deposit box. Diane waited in the car. Sam had brought along a beer box to place the contents in and closed the box.**

"**Sam, I can't wait to see what's in the box. Can I open it?"**

"**Let's wait til we get to the cabin. I want to explain some of the things in it to you. Some of the things you'll recognize right away, other things I have to explain."**

"**I can't wait," said Diane as she took his hand and squeezed it, "Let's stop for lunch along the way then go for groceries."**

"**Okay, Mrs. Malone. Why don't I grill salmon for dinner tonight?"**

"**That would be a perfect ending to a perfect day," said Diane.**

**They put the groceries away together then Sam took Diane's hand and led her to the bedroom. He slowly unbuttoned her blouse as she unbuttoned his shirt. They gently undressed one another which added to their passionate love making and fell asleep in each other's arms. Safety deposit boxes and finances could wait until after their afternoon rendezvous was over.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 **

**Money Matters**

** Diane woke up about a half hour after they fell asleep and quietly slipped out of bed. She walked out to the great room and saw the beer box that Sam had used in which to place the contents of the safety deposit box. She picked it up and brought it over to the couch and opened it. She was astounded when she looked at some of its contents. **

**The first thing she saw was **_**Brian The Lion**_**, her childhood puppet that Sam had used as a bar rag after one of their breakups. She smiled at the memory, no longer hurt but touched that he had saved it. She looked further in the box and found other memorabilia that Sam had saved. A boxing glove purse that he had gotten her; a book of poetry that he had entered a poem of hers in under his name; a picture of her that he had once submitted for that awful Miss Barmaid contest; her letters to him while she was in Europe with Frasier; a picture of she and Coach together; a picture of them together just getting on the sailboat on the night he proposed to her. **

**Diane also found five greeting cards with dates on them along with four small wrapped presents, also dated. She sorted them out and saw that each card and gift was dated May 28, the date they were to have married in 1987. The years on the cards and packages were 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991,1992. **

"**He is a mystery man that's for sure," she quietly said to herself.**

**Diane opened the card dated May 28, 1988. It was an anniversary card. Inside the card Diane found one unused ticket and one ticket stub to the Boston Pops concert. Sam had written inside the card; **_**Although you weren't sitting next to me tonight at the concert, you will always be sitting in my heart. Happy Anniversary. I love you Diane.**_** She let out a very loud, mournful, gut wrenching sob.**

**Sam had been standing at the bedroom door watching her open the box. When she let out a sob, he ran over to her, picked her up and rocked her gently stroking her. She was so fragile and childlike looking in that moment that he was afraid this was too emotional for her right now. Her pregnancy hormones were in full bloom.**

"**Oh Diane, I didn't save these things to make you cry like this. I saved them so that someday, if we ever did get together, you'd know how much I've always loved you. And, if we never got together, I was always hopeful that someday you'd have these things from me as a remembrance."**

**Diane still couldn't speak. Her sobs were coming from somewhere deep inside of her and she couldn't stop. Sam held and rocked her for about fifteen minutes holding on to her tightly. Her body was racking with sobs. **

**She finally uttered, "Oh the years we lost and you were so lonely. I'm so sorry Sam," and she began grieving again.**

**Sam said;**

"**Sweetheart, I've thought a lot about the day that we were supposed to get married. At that time in our lives we were still competing with each other, we were still fighting and pulling crazy pranks on each other. We were very much in love but I think if we had married then, we might have ended up in divorce court instead of sitting here on the couch expecting twins, and happy just to be together. Don't you think so?"**

**Sam felt Diane relax a little in his arms and her sobbing had eased slightly but the tears were still falling. He held her close until even the tears subsided.**

"**Can I look at the rest of the things in the box?" whispered Diane.**

"**Honey, is this too much for you right now? We can wait until later. The box isn't going anywhere."**

"**Sam, I think I'm okay now and I'd like to look with you sitting next to me."**

"**Okay Diane but I hate it when you cry. Try not to cry, okay." She smiled at him and gave him a kiss. **

"**Okay but I can't promise."**

**Diane opened all of the cards and gifts that Sam had given her for their anniversaries. One was a small book of poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning that had a cat on the cover, one of those Hallmark store books. Another gift was a framed picture her standing in front of the house they once owned. The other two gifts were purchased with her in mind. One was a small locket in which he had put a picture of each one of them. The last gift in 1992 was a diamond bracelet that he had seen and knew she'd love to have. There was no need to give her a gift in 1993 because that was the very night they had made love last May when she visited Boston and the night she conceived.**

"**I'm an emotional mess Sam. I must look like an idiot."**

"**Never," said Sam as he gave her cheek a kiss, "but you are a bundle of emotions. Let's get out of here for a while and go for a hike, maybe do some fishing. When we come back to the cabin I'll throw the salmon on the grill. We'll talk finances tomorrow. You've had enough for today and so have I."**

**Diane forced herself off the couch because she knew Sam was right. She needed activity and she loved to fish, especially with Sam. They always made a game out of fishing calling it "Whoever catches the longest fish gets to sleep with the other one." The prize worked for them both. They had set up a rule for their fishing game to make it more fun. The fish had to be eight or more inches long and they measured each other's fish if it looked close.**

"**Sam, do you have the measuring tape"?**

"**Of course I do. I wouldn't fish with you without it. I should bring a life jacket too".**

**A few weeks earlier Diane caught a fish that was one sixteenth shorter than eight inches required and Sam wouldn't allow it. Diane pushed him into the river over it and he grabbed her as he fell and took her in with him into the river. They laughed all the way back to the cabin and the long, hot shower they took together afterward.**


	3. Chapter 3

**The Malones**

**Money Matters **

**Chapter 3**

** "Let's go into town for breakfast this morning Sam. I'm hungry for blueberry waffles at that cute little restaurant on the edge of town."**

** "That does sound good."**

** "I'll be ready in ten minutes Sam. I just want to make the bed and clean up the cabin a little before we go."**

** A half hour later, Sam and Diane were on their way into town to eat, as always, content to be together.**

** "As soon as we get home Diane, I want to haul out the paperwork from Norm and start going over my holdings. And, there are a few more things from the safety deposit box that I want to show you."**

** "You make it sound so official Sam. We're just going over the bar and the apartment building aren't we?"**

** "There are a couple of other things I want to show you."**

** "Again, the mystery man Sam". **

** Diane and Sam sat at the kitchen table to begin looking over paperwork that Sam thought was necessary for Diane to see now that they were married and having children. **

** "Okay, so here's my portfolio. Norm did a nice job with it. You know, he bought a computer and took a class in computer based accounting. He's really arrived at 1993, hasn't he? He knows a lot about computers, much more than I do. He wants me to computerize the bar, whatever that means."**

"**Good for Norman."**

"**First Diane, I want to show you something from my deposit box."**

**Sam pulled some papers out of a manila envelope. The papers read, **_**Last Will and Testament of Samuel Malone.**_** The will was dated October 25 1987. He handed it to Diane. Diane read the first two paragraphs of the will and was astounded when she read;**

_**I leave my entire estate and a safety deposit box to Diane Chambers…**_

"**Why me Sam? I certainly didn't do anything to deserve this."**

"**Well, at that time, there wasn't much anyhow, but yes you did, Diane."**

"**What then?"**

"**It's a long story but I guess I have to tell it to you or you'll never understand. You see Diane after you left in 1987 I could barely go on. Everywhere I turned, I saw you. I sold the bar and tried to sail away but that didn't work out at all so I came back to Boston and worked for the new owners of Cheers. For two years after you left I did absolutely nothing socially. No one at the bar knew it but I spent every one of my nights off at home. I took that time to start studying the business world. I subscribed to **_**The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Money Magazine. **_**I read everything I could about investing".**

"**Sam, I had no idea."**

"**I sold the house that we had bought together and made a nice profit on it. I was broke. I knew half the money belonged to you but decided to take both my share and your share and use it as a down payment on my apartment building. To justify taking your half, I had my lawyer draw up a will to make sure you got your share of the profit on the house. And, of course, because I never stopped thinking about you," Sam paused then smiled at her.**

"**God you're an honest man Sam."**

"**I learned that from you sweetheart."**

"**The neighborhood around my apartment building became one of the hippest areas in downtown Boston so the value of my building skyrocketed. I was able to leverage my equity and use that money to invest in the stock market. So you see Diane, your share of the profit on the house is the reason I have what I have now which brings me to the portfolio."**

"**Sam, let's take a break. I'll put coffee on then we'll sit back down. This conversation is easily more informative than any college class I've ever taken. You've got me hooked."**

**Sam pulled out the portfolio that Norm had prepared for him. He had a copy for Diane. Each page of his portfolio listed the holding, current market value, amount owed, profit and loss. Sam simplified the page for Diane, only pointing out the investment, value of each, amount owed, and finally, net worth.**

** Market value Liability**

**Cheers $ 500,000.00 $0**

**Apartment $1,000,000.00 $400,000.00**

**Cabin $ 250,000.00 $100,000.00**

**Stocks $956,000.00 $0 **

**Bonds $74,360.00 $0**

**Cash $110,000.00 $0**

**Net Worth ****$2,390,360.00 **

"**Sam, my God, you're a wealthy man," said Diane looking at him with a mixture of disbelief and awe. You have done so much in the last six years. I just can't believe it."**

"**I have been lucky haven't I? There are two or three times in the past couple of years that really made this thing come to life. First of all, buying an apartment building that jumped in value very quickly allowed me to invest in a small start- up company in San Jose California that hit very big. That's where the bulk of the money in stocks comes from. The other thing that makes all this come to life is that you're here sharing it with me".**

"**Oh Sam, you're making me want to cry all over again".**

"**Oh no, no, no Diane, please don't start again. Do you see though why it was so important for me to have you know this? It's your money too sweetheart".**

"**If I had known I was marrying a rich man, I'd have gotten a new dress for the wedding at least. You are the most fascinating man I've ever known Sam. It's no wonder everyone, including me, loves you".**

"**Diane, you are the one who makes me feel rich, the money I have doesn't. You never were interested in money were you? You were much more interested in feelings and life and love. We are a perfect match. Perfect."**

**Sam stood up and walked over to her and said, "How do you feel about making love to a rich man right now?"**

"**I would make love to you even if you weren't rich Sam. Oh, that's right, I have done that haven't I? Rich or poor, doesn't matter to me. And Sam, thank you for letting me grieve yesterday. I think I let six years of grief out in one afternoon. It's an afternoon I'll never forget," Diane said as she wrapped her arms around him.**

**Sam smiled as he lifted Diane in his arms and carried to the bed.**


End file.
